What is
interesting about the project is that we still have not worked out how Gilbert
Doble made his sculptures. A local Marrickville lad, he was clearly a bit of an
oddball. At a time when any significant bronze
foundry work had to be sent to England, he developed a home grown electro-deposition process that he perfected himself in his own studio in his
back garden in Marrickville. Even after we have been intimately involved with the Winged
Victory we still can’t quite work out how he did it.

The Winged Victory conservation team inspecting the sculpture

The interesting thing is
that, despite the failure of his Winged Victory sculpture (it only lasted 40 years
before coming apart at the seams and needing to be brought down for safety
reasons), his other public sculptures have lasted well. These include
the Evans Memorialin Bathurst, notable according
to the local guidebook for “its respectful depiction of an Aboriginal man
crouched at Evans' knee - representing one of the Aboriginals who acted as a
guide for Evans on his surveys.”

As well as Winged Victory, Doble was
also commissioned to undertake two other memorials, for Wellington and
Pyrmont. At a time when war memorials were either a block of stone or had a
soldier atop them, his approach was distinctive, avoiding the militaristic
nature of such and concentrating on the mix of grief and motherly support to
the fallen that his female figures depicted.

Pyrmont War Memorial

A fun side
story of this project is that it has all been filmed as part of a 5 part
documentary on the Australian War Memorial called 'The Memorial: Beyond the Anzac legend' put together by the Eye Works team for the History Channel. Neil Oliver (he of ‘Coast’ fame) fronted the cameras and kept us all
entertained with his charming Scottish accent.

The Winged Victory conservation team with Neil Oliver

And while we are on awards, I will just slip in that
we also won a Highly Commended for our work on the Sydney Town Hall Air Raid Shelter sign. It was a good day for recognition of expert conservation practice.